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Common variable star 21 EP

HIP 109420

RA 332.5324° · Dec 40.9196° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F6.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Lacerta.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around August — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 43.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.926
bv
0.345
constellation
Lac
dist ly
2489.7405
luminosity
37.1193
mag
10.34
name
HIP 109420
spect
F6.5
var amplitude
0.37
var designation
DE
var max
10.134
var min
10.504

Nearby objects

About HIP 109420

HIP 109420 is a common variable star. It lies about 2,489.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lac, shines at apparent magnitude 10.34 and has spectral type F6.5.

Its spectrum reads F6.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 109420 in the constellation Lac. At apparent magnitude 10.34, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 109420 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HIP 109420 is a common variable star

HIP 109420 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Yellow-white F-type star, Gently variable and A named variable star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.